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November 2011

November 29, 2011

On Monday I was in a store and asked a few employees who were standing around how business was. Well, I really wanted to ask why they were standing around talking among themselves, but I restrained myself. But I digress.

The employees said they had been pretty busy over the weekend, but now they were "just waiting to get busy again." I totally get it. The first full week of the holiday season is always a bit maddening. At times it doesn't even seem like it's the holiday, and then BAM you get slammed for a while. Then it's back to slow again.

You can approach the next couple of weeks in two different ways. You can wait for success or you can create it. Don't miss the opportunities that are before you because you're waiting for future opportunities to show up.

The slower periods offer an incredible opportunity to get to know your customers better and deliver an experience that is second to none. As matter of fact, these slower times should allow you to greatly increase your average sale and units per transaction.

When not with customers I would be on the phone or on email inviting customers to come into the store. Work off a short script that gives your customer three benefits to coming in soon.

1. During the early part of the holiday it is more relaxing to shop in the store.

2. You are able to spend more time helping them find the perfect gift and/or items for themselves.

3. More products are in stock. You especially want to share this if you have a gift with purchase that is in limited supply.

Don't wait for success to find you this holiday...create it!

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

November 23, 2011

There are several somewhat intangible staff attributes that separate the good from the great stores over the course of the holiday season. They aren't things we train on, but are the result of the leadership and the effect they have on his/her team.

These intangibles directly impact the customer's experience and, ultimately store results, in a positive or negative way. Here are some key intangible for your consideration.

Attitude

Well-led teams are excited about the upcoming holiday. They know that the next six weeks will be very busy and at times very tiring, but they're also eager to get started because they know how important Christmas is to a store's long-term profitability.

In other stores, the staff is dreading the holidays. They're talking about how difficult customers are, how the store hours stink, and everything else they believe is going to be bad about the holiday.

The attitude of the leader is the attitude of the team.

Beliefs

Well-led teams believe they control what happens this holiday. They don't dismiss how challenging the economy has been for a lot of people, but they also know they have the products and store experience that people will pay for.

Other teams are already preparing for failure. They've been told that customers prefer other stores so they just do the best they can. Unfortunately for them, when the bar is set so low the best isn't going to be good enough.

Staff beliefs come directly from the leader.

Energy

This may well be an outcome of attitude and beliefs, but customers can feel the energy and passion from a well-led team. Energized teams have a bounce in their step as they work the floor and enthusiastically welcome their customers into their store.

Not so for the other teams. Maybe they'll find it when the holiday crowds hit - but if they don't have the energy now I'm not sure they'll get it later.

The daily energy level of the leader sets the energy level for the team.

Focus

Well-led teams are laser focused on the customer. Their goal is to win every customer who walks in the door, maximize the opportunity, and extend the relationship by setting up the next visit. Everything else is secondary. The holiday is well underway in these stores.

Other teams are still waiting for the holiday customers and are juggling current customers with getting everything ready for the big day. They fail to see that every day is now the big day.

A team's focus is determined by the leader's expectations and own actions.

As a leader, all you have to do is look around to see what your attitude, beliefs, energy, and focus are. Your team is displaying them today. I hope you like what you see.

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

November 17, 2011

There are many reasons to host holiday events. They're great ways to drive your best customers into the store and best of all, most of them arrive intending to make a purchase. Events are going to be key for a lot of independent specialty retailers this holiday.

If you go BIG and follow these tips you'll not only deliver a better customer experience, you're also more likely to sell more, a lot more, at your event.

1. Go BIG - even overboard - with your event. I've been to a lot of store events in my life and the ones that stand out the most are the ones that exceeded my expectations at the time. If you're going to go to the hard work and expense of hosting an event for your customers, by all means spend the extra money to impress your guests.

Surprise people by taking your food and drink up a level. Use higher quality plates, utensils and serving pieces. Give out gifts and prizes that people will remember. Do something that you know will wow your guests. Although you may not see the extra effort and expense pay off at the event itself, the impression it makes on your customers will pay long-term dividends.

2. Make a BIG effort to get your best customers to the event. You can't leave the important subject of which customers attend your event up to chance. You need those top 10-25-50-100 customers to show up. You also want those customers who spent big at last year's event to come back this year.

Take time right now, before you get too busy, and create a customer wish list for your event. You know, the customers you want to attend. Right before the event these customers should be sent handwritten invitations and called. You may need to take an employee off the floor to do this, or bring in a temp. The owner or manager should consider personally calling the top five or ten customers on the wish list.

3. Go BIG on staffing by bringing people in for non-selling activities. This is especially important for holiday events. I once attended a men's night at a boutique where it seemed the staff was doing everything except selling. Use temporary staff such as family members and friends of the staff to serve food and drinks, gift wrap, and take care of any other non-selling activities. You want sales people selling BIG.

4. Offer BIG incentives for your staff the night of the event. Not only do you want sales people selling, you want them to maximize every customer opportunity. Consider having progressive payouts and prizes for higher levels of performance. If you can, make an even bigger impact by paying out the incentives at the end of the night.

5. Have a HUGE sales goals for your event. If you're going big with everything else, then you should be able to put up huge sales numbers at a holiday event. Aim high!

Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

November 10, 2011

Last week one of our clients announced to their employees that the traditional holiday party will not be held this year. The employees were very disappointed. The annual event has long been a high point of the year because it brought families together together for an evening of food, drinks, and socializing.

The disappointment turned to excitement when the owner announced that the holiday party hasn't been completely cancelled, but will be replaced by a smaller scale event that will enable people to give back to their community.

The company is giving each employee a gift card to use to purchase holiday gifts for children in need. The employees, along with their families, will bring their purchases to a giftwrapping party held over consecutive nights at the company's office. The giftwrapping party will be catered and is shaping up to be a wonderful evening.

LOVE IT!

It's a holiday party with a purpose. Employees are still recognized for their contribution to the company, but at the same time the organization is able to give something to their community. It's a win/win that makes a difference, and in this particular instance it could spell the difference between a child having a present under the tree or not.

Whether you currently do something like this or not, it's a great reminder of the opportunities to touch more lives we have in our businesses. You also can't underestimate the impact this has on both employees and customers.

Here are a few more suggestions for ways to add more purpose to holiday parties and events:

* Donate a gift or make a contribution for every customer who shows up at a VIP or Wishlist event. This gesture could be the tipping point for a customer who is undecided about whether to attend or not.

* Ask customers to bring a gift or canned goods as the price of admission for an event. Even better, match the donation.

* Offer a gift card or discount for bringing in a gift or canned goods. This is a great way to start the sale. It's up to you and your team to finish it.

* Partner with a local shelter or charity to create a Wishlist tree. Customers can purchase an ornament that helps a particular person or family in need, and those customers are invited to an exclusive evening or weekend holiday event.

So let me ask, how can you add more purpose to your parties and events?

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

November 02, 2011

In my last postI wrote that specialty retailers whose competitive advantage is their staff and the experience they deliver must have employees who Love their jobs.

The difference in the passion, energy and conviction of Love people compared to Like people impacts both the top and bottom lines.

How do you build a staff of people who Love their jobs? Consider these tips:

1. Be incredibly particular about why you hire someone. It starts right here. You can hire potentially good employees based on their past experience, or you can hire people who would truly Love to work for your company/store. You can teach product knowledge and selling skills, but you can't teach the passion and desire to be associated with your store(s). While candidates obviously need to possess some skills and attitudes, I'd be concerned about any applicant who doesn't convey their Love.

2. Show the Love to get the Love. I firmly believe that employees give their customers what they themselves receive from the company. One of my favorite sayings is, "You can't expect your employees to give service with a smile unless you first give them something to smile about." This is why employee recognition, appropriate rewards, a strong culture, and managers and owners simply saying thank you is so important.

3. Refuse to accept Unlike behavior. I think we can all agree that retail is not as easy as it may look to outsiders, and that it can be hard to be "on" every minute of the day. So while it's only natural that some employees might have a bit of an off day, we can't accept any employee demonstrating any behavior to customers or their peers that communicates they don't like their job or the products.

Too many managers/owners look or explain away such behavior by saying, "Oh, he's having a bad day." Well, that employee bad day may have just cost you a sale and a customer. Directly address any employee who has an Unlike day, and either turn around or remove the frequent Unliker.

4. Mirror the Love. Employees follow their leader's behavior. That's why it's called leading. If you want your staff to be Love people, not Like people, you must first demonstrate the Love. Do you engage customers with passion and energy? Do you unfailingly avoid any negative talk about customers and competitors? Do you demonstrate all the expected elements of the customer experience? Most important of all, do you Love what you do?

While I believe that a Like owner or manager can run a good store, I'm not sure that person can create a store staffed with employees who Love their jobs and deliver an experience customers Love, not just Like.

So let me ask, are you finding the Love people you need to be a wildly successful store?

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.